Need help recording

Special Interest Groups Recording Techniques
1

Hi! My dad wants to know how to record himself speaking a message, using Audacity. We have downloaded it here, on his computer. I have read up on some of the help files. But would appreciate some individual help, if any of you have the time to do so.

My dad has recorded himself speaking, using Audacity, and has saved it to the computer. But when we open it up, we see that it doesn’t play in one stream from beginning to end. Instead, one must click on each icon to listen to all the parts of the message. He would like to know if it is possible to listen to them all at once without clicking on each icon like that. And if so, how to do it. Or must it first be burned onto a CD before it is possible to hear the message in one unbroken stream?

Another problem, one we experienced today, was that when we clicked to turn off Audacity, it wouldn’t turn off. Finally, I managed to get it to turn off by turning off the computer. But I’m sure there must be a way to turn it off while in the Audacity program. Could you explain how?

Thank you!

Debby or Allan

2

This is one of the most common misunderstandings about Audacity.
When you select “Save” - Audacity saves the “Audacity Project” - this is in it’s own format, and consists of a project file (something.aup) and a folder full of data files (something_data). These are not normal audio files. changing, moving or deleting any of these files will probably screw up the entire project.

To get a normal audio file, such as a WAV file or an MP3, you must “Export” the audio in the desired format.

The best way to learn how to use Audacity is to work through a couple of the tutorials that are available on the main site.
http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Tutorials